


A Banner Year

by queen_scribbles



Category: Pillars of Eternity
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-04
Updated: 2018-02-04
Packaged: 2019-03-13 13:01:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,283
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13571100
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/queen_scribbles/pseuds/queen_scribbles
Summary: For Prompt #21. I went with the best year of your Watcher’s life prompt, and it turned into Taviloth fluff(surprise, surprise)





	A Banner Year

**Author's Note:**

> For Prompt #21. I went with the best year of your Watcher’s life prompt, and it turned into Taviloth fluff ~~(surprise, surprise)~~

 

“...mostly during my second year at the lore college.  We spent a lot of time in the field searching for artifacts or historic accounts for the higher-ranking scholars to study. The adventures we had! Definitely one of the best years of my life.”

Tavi smiled to herself, watching Kana’s enthusiastic gestures as he shared some of those adventures with Sagani, who nodded and murmured _Uh-huh_ in all the right places to keep him going, attention clearly divided between the rambling aumaua and caring for her bow. Kana just as clearly didn’t take offense, happily chattering away. Tavi returned her own attention to the rough wooden antelope taking shape under her whittling knife, still half-listening to him ramble.

“It’s rude to eavesdrop, you know,” Aloth commented  lightly as he sat next to her, leaving just enough space between them she had elbow room to continue whittling.

Tavi snorted, scowled briefly at the unintentional gouge his near-silent arrival had caused her leave in one of the antlers, and then set about fixing it. “Is it really eavesdropping if he happens to be talkin’ loud enough I can hear him all the way over here?”

Aloth chuckled. “I suppose it depends on who you ask. And what he’s talking about.”

“He an’ Sagani were tradin’ adventure stories. He’s on some of his time at the lore college,” Tavi replied, guiding her knife around a bend in the figurine taking shape. “Some of the adventures his second year there apparently made it one of the best years of his life.”

“It’s good that he _has_ those,” Aloth commented off-handedly, picking up a wood shaving to fiddle with.

“What?” Tavi stared at the antlers for a moment, then sighed and lopped off the damaged one.

“Best years of his life,” Aloth replied. “That can be called that for more reason than not being terrible.”

Her grip slackened on the half-carved figurine as she sent him a side long glance. “City slicker, keep talkin’ like that an’ I’m gonna start worryin’ about you.”

“ _Start_ worrying?” he said, bemused.

“Start worryin’ _more_ ,” Tavi amended, rolling her eyes.

As if sensing she was about to pry--he was very good at that--Aloth leaned  forward, intently studying the grain of the wood he held as he asked, “So, what would you consider yours?”

“Best year of my life?” Tavi set down the antelope and knife, brushing way wood shavings as she accepted the redirect, at least temporarily. “Hmm... prob’ly when I was... twenty one or twenty two. I was workin’ with the town blacksmith t’ cover for an apprentice who was out with a broken arm. So I was doin’ something I enjoyed--or enjoyed more than workin’ in my father’s store--more physically demanding, less talkin’ to people an’ havin’ to play polite.” She grinned. “No one’s surprised when a blacksmith swears. They’re more surprised if you don’t, to be honest. So I could spout every _fuckin’_ curse I knew an’ no one batted an eye. My brothers still looked up to me, by some miracle. Casius was actually knee-deep in trainin’ to be a wizard, and he was damn good at it. Malachi was waitin’ for his voice to pick a damn octave so he knew how to class his singin’, but just put up with it crackin’ every so often in the meantime. Also, that’s the year my parents _finally_ gave up on turnin’ me into a proper, soft-spoken young lady-” Aloth smirked at that, and she elbowed him in the ribs. “I’d been runnin’ around with muddy bare feet an’ wearin’ trousers ‘stead of skirts since I was nine fuckin’ years old, so I dunno why it took ‘em so fuckin’ long to give up, but they did. Just let me be myself, long as it didn’t blow back on them badly.” Tavi smiled wistfully, fingers absently tracing the carved antelope’s features. “That year.... that year was pretty fuckin’ great. It’s the most free I felt while my family was still alive.” She winced. “That came out wrong-”

“I knew what you meant,” Aloth cut her off reassuringly. “That’s the year you had it all, so to speak; felt free to be yourself, and still had the people you cared about.”

“Exactly.” Tavi smiled and bumped her shoulder against his. Her smile faded quickly, however, and she stared pensively at the wooden figure in her hands.  “Everything in my _life_ divides over that fuckin’ fire, Aloth. _Before_ and _After_ , and I feel...” she sighed. “I feel like it’s two different people sometimes.”

“It is, in a way,” he said softly, rubbing her arm. “And there’s nothing wrong with that. Your experiences shape who you are, for better or worse.” He smiled.  “Definitely better, in your case.”

“Aw, thanks, city slicker, I’m flattered.” Tavi grinned, shaking off her brief melancholy. She resumed whittling, carefully running her knife around the curve of a hoof. “What about you? What would you consider the best year of your life?”

Aloth was quiet for long enough she almost started to worry she’d offended him, or stirred up unpleasant memories, lower lip caught between his teeth as he thought. “...This one, I suppose,” he finally said, so softly it was practically under his breath.

Tavi shot him a look halfway between skeptical and joking. “’Cause I’m the best thing that’s ever happened to you?”

He smiled at her sarcastic tone, but his own was far more sincere. “One of them, yes.”

She almost dropped her knife. “Seriously?”

A nod, slow and deliberate. “Yes. Tavi, over the course of the past year, I’ve made more friends than I’ve had in the rest of my life combined, learned how to... handle Iselmyr, escaped the Leaden Key’s influence, and gained a measure of confidence that, while perhaps not the equal of _yours_ , is certainly more than I _had_.”

“A banner year,” Tavi agreed with a playful smirk.

“And I don’t know if I would have accomplished all of it--certainly not _most_ of it--without your help,” he finished. “So... thank you.”

“You can thank me later,” she said with a wink, and Aloth went red to the tips of his ears. “I’m just kiddin’, but Hylea’s _tits_ , you shoulda seen your face.”

Herolled his eyes. “Very funny.”

Tavi grinned. “Sorry. I’m glad I was able to help you, Aloth, but it’s hardly as if things were one-sided. You helped me a lot, too; with all the Watcher bullshit an’ everything. So I think in that respect we’re pretty much even.”

Aloth raised an eyebrow. “Is there one where we _aren’t?”_

She chuckled and packed away the antelope to finish later. “At last count, I’ve kissed you more times’n you’ve kissed me.”

He shot her one of those _Really?_ looks he was so good at--he’d gotten a lot of practice with her--and she could almost _see_ him consciously bypass pointing out it didn’t really _matter_ who kissed who in the long run. Instead, he commented dryly, “If you’ll recall, you did have a head start.”

Tavi grinned at the memory and cracked her knuckles. “I do have to concede that point. You’re still behind, Corfiser.”

Aloth shrugged, but there was a glint in his eyes that made her doubt the apparent nonchalance. “I’ll have to do something about that, won’t I?”

“I wouldn’t be upset if you did,” she said with her own shrug of feigned nonchalance. 

“Well, in that case...” His hand slid from her arm up to curve along her jaw and he pulled her into a gentle kiss.

Tavi smiled to herself as her hand rose to dig into his hair.  _This year’s shapin’ up pretty fuckin’ good for me, too._

 

**Author's Note:**

> I went and counted canon kisses that have happened by this point, and, well. Tavi’s initiated 14 out of 19 prior to this fic. Not counting forehead/nose/cheek kisses. I don’t think that can be completely attributed to her head start. That’s only responsible for, like, two. Get cracking, Aloth. You have a lot of catching up to do. :3


End file.
